15 Runway Nail Polish and Nail Art Trends to Obsess Over

One of hottest accessories for spring 2013: cool, eye-catching nails. Here are 15 great ideas right from the New York Fashion Week runways that’ll have your fingers looking oh so chic come next season—or even starting right now, if you’d like to get a jump on things. Hey, we know you guys like to be ahead of the curve!

Must-Have Manicure: the Matte-Shiny French Mani

The genius idea spotted at Angel Sanchez? A fresh take on the traditional French manicure, created by layering a slightly darker matte pink shade on top of a glossy one. Subtle but statement-making.

Photo: Courtesy CND

Must-Have Manicure: Glitter-Dipped Tips

A graduated sparkly-fied manicure = instant glam. At the Behnaz Sarafpour show, CND’s Shelena Robinson applied glitter onto a wet layer of topcoat—but just at the ends. It’s an easy look to DIY; just make sure to finish off with another layer of topcoat so your shimmer flecks don’t snag on everything!

Photo: Courtesy CND

Must-Have Manicure: the Not-So-Perfect Half-Moon

The new way to do a half-moon mani (as seen on the Kaelen runway): Go black on white with a not-perfect painted-on-in-strokes technique. The lack of a crisp line not only makes the whole thing a little fresher, but it’s also way less stressful to pull off than the previous versions of this look.

Photo: Courtesy Butter London

Must-Have Manicure: the Rothko-esque Color Block

At the Veda show, the Butter London team created a fun new idea for your digits by adding a glossy black stripe. The finished product had both an ’80s vibe and a bit of a resemblance to a Mark Rothko painting.

Must-Have Manicure: Ultra-Shiny Metallics

Must-Have Manicure: the Snowy Caviar Nail

Beaded nails will still be going strong in spring, judging by the manicures at the Joy Cioci show. By making them all white, CND’s artist Candice Manacchio kept the bubble-inspired look sophisticated—and nothing like a clump of Dippin’ Dots.

Photo: Courtesy CND

Must-Have Manicure: Milk-White Polish

White nails were all over the spring runways, including at the Karen Walker show, where CND’s Angi Wingle used two coats of snow-color polish capped off with matte topcoat. This is a particularly great office-appropriate nail look.

Photo: Courtesy CND

Must-Have Manicure: a Diagonal Pop of Color

As our blogger Petra put it, the nails at the Lauren Moffatt show were “a cross between bright contrast tips—which are getting kind of played-out too, no?—and color-blocking.” All you have to do to copy it is place a piece of tape diagonally across the tip and paint ’em in a bright hue!

Photo: Courtesy OPI

Must-Have Manicure: Gingham Print

As Deborah Lippmann proved at the Kate Spade show, overlapping stripes are all you need to get in on the season’s bold-print trend.

Photo: Courtesy Deborah Lippmann

Must-Have Manicure: the Blue Waves Mani

To create this layered nail look (inspired by the ocean!) at Charlotte Ronson, Color Club’s lead technician, Simcha Whitehill, dipped the pointed end of a triangular makeup sponge in three different shades of blue, dabbing each color onto the nail in vertical stripes to create “waves” in varying shades.

Photo: Courtesy Color Club

Must-Have Manicure: the Bloody Good Manicure

These cool nails from the Prabal Gurung show were created by dipping a fine-tip striper brush into a blood-red polish—which was then allowed to splash down onto the nail. The result? A slightly edgy, slightly messy effect that’s vampire-approved.

Photo: Courtesy Sally Hansen

Must-Have Manicure: the Racing Stripe

At the Monika Chiang show, it was all about a simple strip of chrome straight down the center of the nail. Call it “Indy 500 chic.”

Photo: Courtesy Lancôme

Must-Have Manicure: the Shadow Effect

At the Phillip Lim show, the Essie team found a totally unboring way to wear your neutrals. They used two tones, one toffee-color and the other a darker gray shade, side by side to create a “shadow effect,” so it looked like one half of the nail was in lower lighting. You can see the two colors here: Essie’s Chinchilly and Brooch the Subject.

Photo: Glamour.com

Must-Have Manicure: Nail Jewelry

MAC’s Keri Blair used the term “nail jewelry” to describe the fun looks at the Ruffian show—and we couldn’t help but get on board with the idea. A sparkly little adornment or two fastened with nail glue will get you the (removable!) effect.

Photo: Glamour.com

Must-Have Manicure: Latticework

The intricate overlapping layers of pink polish at the Rodarte show took more than 150 hours to create, but you can get the look by simply cutting strips of tape, painting them, and then laying them over your nails to get a basketlike texture that’ll surely get you some compliments.